WWE Adds Another Championship Match To The WrestleMania Kickoff Show, Raw Ratings Up

The Granddaddy Of Them All is under a week away and WrestleMania is taking shape in fast form. WWE is not only putting the finishing touches on their current stories and matches but also stacking the card. A lot of interest is placed on the kickoff show, not only because of the fact it’s free but the fact it’s not technically a part of the WrestleMania card.

As much as Alexa Bliss has had an amazing run as SmackDown Women’s Champion, it doesn’t appear as though WWE is placing too much faith in the match. We only say that because WWE recently announced the SmackDown Women’s Championship match which will pit Bliss against every available woman on the SmackDown roster is now being relegated to the kickoff show.

In a press release sent out today, WWE said while hyping the WrestleMania kickoff show, “there will be three huge matches on the Kickoff: WWE Cruiserweight Champion Neville vs. Austin Aries, SmackDown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss’ title defense against every SmackDown LIVE female Superstar who is available to compete, and during the second hour on USA Network, the fourth-annual Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal.”

Therefore, you can see this in one of two ways. You could either see this as a huge amount of trust placed on the SmackDown Women’s Championship match because the match will be so good it will encourage loads of viewers to buy WrestleMania. Or you could just see it as diminishing the value of the SmackDown Women’s Championship match. Either way, Alexa Bliss and company are going to be locking up on the kickoff show this year.

PWInsider reports that the numbers for Raw are in and they’re looking good. Last night’s go-home Raw had 3,292,000 viewers, which is great and way up from last week. However, it’s not all great news because that number was about half a million lower than the go-home Raw for WrestleMania did last year.